[Leica] FOM 2

[Alastair Firkin <firkin@netconnect.com.au>]

G'day all,

a few more filtered comments;

1. I am not intimidated by being small. This is the beauty of the internet.
With patience, we can create a decent page and project, and I am very
encouraged by the support and enthusiasm of the group

2. I intend to write to Leica soon and alert them to the project. I do not
want to do this until I tidy up the home page for the project a bit more:
I'm not a fan of their current page, but I know that my late night rush up
job needs attention

3. I intend to write to MoMA. I figure this is the fastest way to see if we
are going to hit any copyright problems. I know that they may be planning
something themselves, but perhaps they have not got around to it, and will
welcome the concept and imput from the group. I do not expect them to jump
for joy, or embrace an untried project, but perhaps after the first year or
so of our project, they may even look at it with some sympathy. Does anyone
have a contact e-mail address, or better still a contact name and e-Mail
for MoMA?

4. When I came up with the idea for the project, I envisaged its success as
being interwoven with the success of this group. The LUG has now been
around for more than 5 years, and shows no sign of "dying". We do have a
group of likeminded people. I have met quite a number of you over the years
and quite a few LUG meetings are now occuring all over the world, including
photokina. It is this camaraderie which should be the strength of this
project.

5. One of the threads on the group has been a desire for a photographic
outlet. I know that others have tried. I am a member of Hans' Leica
community, but there were some weaknesses with this. Firstly a monthly
competition is hard to maintain, but in fact, they are still going, and the
last one was very popular. Secondly it is hosted on a commercial site, and
there were fears about copyright etc. I intend to host this project as
"commercial" free as possible, with the photographers maintaining
copyright. The only thing the project will ask for is the right to display
the images submitted on the web sites, and in any exhibition which may come
of the project. It will be a "requirement" of submission that an exhibition
print be supplied if the image is chosen for the final 100 each year. It
would be nice to think that IFFFFFF we get 5 years of images that they will
be worth exhibiting and producing a catologue for the exhibit. I am not
asking for exclusive rights to the images.  These and other details will be
spelt out when I finish the home page, but I welcome comments and
discussion on these points, the finer of which can be adjusted as the
project progresses.



Hey, we managed to "do" and Olympics, so this should be a breeze for the
boys and girls "downunder".


Cheers

Alastair Firkin

http://users.netconnect.com.au/~firkin/AGFhmpg.html